New England Newspaper & Press Association

The application window for Press Forward’s first-ever open call is now open. This open call for funding is focused on addressing the long-standing inequalities in journalistic coverage of underserved communities. Press Forward will provide 100-plus news outlets with an expected $100,000 each in funding, whether they are nonprofit or for-profit entities. The funding will be unrestricted, general operating support, allowing the news organizations to spend it as needed to sustain and grow their operations.

Press Forward invites interested applicants to attend this information session that will cover grantmaking criteria and eligibility guidelines, how to use the JustFund application platform and resources for grant seekers.

This webinar will be recorded if you are unable to attend. If you have any questions, please visit pressforward.news/opencall.

Press Forward is a national movement to strengthen our democracy by revitalizing local news and information. A coalition of funders is investing more than $500 million to strengthen local newsrooms, close longstanding gaps in journalism coverage, advance public policy that expands access to local news and scale infrastructure the sector needs to thrive. Press Forward is housed at The Miami Foundation. For more, visit pressforward.news.

Trans people and DEIB programs are in the crosshairs of state leaders, legislatures, policymakers, and school boards. Journalists must be prepared to report and share the impact of these efforts, as well as how political candidates are using them to influence voters.

What are the key issues at stake and the major themes playing out? What are the most reliable sources of unbiased information? And how can reporters better understand multiple perspectives and the nuanced questions involved?

Join the National Press Club Journalism Institute, with support from the Trans Journalists Association, for a free discussion aimed at answering these questions as well as illuminating best practices for your reporting and editing on transgender and LGBTQ+ issues. This webinar is geared for all journalists, especially those new to the beat, or from small and medium news organizations.

Participants will learn:
– How to responsibly frame journalistic stories to include trans and LGBTQ+ voices
– Questions to ask in the current environment
– How to identify policy and political stories relevant to your audiences, whether they’re local, regional, or national
– How to authentically ensure your sources and LGBTQ+ story subjects feel seen and heard

Research is the basic starting point for developing story ideas, gathering information, and fact-checking. Among the places to start is using LexisNexis — a database of legal, business, government, high-tech, and news articles. Many of these articles are not available through a basic Internet search because they are behind a paywall.

With millions of articles within the LexisNexis database, it can be easy to get lost in the database. Knowing how to customize it for your reporting purposes is key.

Join the National Press Club Journalism Institute for a free webinar to learn how to use and customize LexisNexis.

Award-winning investigative reporter and editor Brad Hamilton will walk participants through how to customize LexisNexis to source stories, find unexpected story angles, and to identify and reach potential sources through LexisNexis’ Contact References database.

While LexisNexis is a fee-based database service, some newsrooms provide access to staff. Most public libraries provide access to their communities, and National Press Club members have free access to the LexisNexis database as part of their annual membership. Hamilton also will offer journalists an avenue for accessing LexisNexis at a steep discount.

Whether you are expanding your existing coverage or starting from scratch, developing a new beat can be challenging. New relationships need to be formed. Familiarity with different communities may be required. Trust needs to be built. Stories need to be found.

By attending this class, you’ll learn:

• How to identify key sources on your new beat and develop relationships with them over time.

• How to find the authoritative voice on a complicated beat to get exclusives and drive coverage.

• How to use social media to identify new stories and find sources within your beat without having a huge following.

Instructor: Alexa Gagosz, The Boston Globe

The New England First Amendment Coalition launched in 2020 a monthly educational series featuring short, practical lessons on journalism and the First Amendment.

The goal of the program — called “30 Minute Skills” — is to provide reporters and other citizens knowledge they can use immediately in newsgathering, data collection, storytelling and other areas of journalism and First Amendment law.

The lessons are provided in a 30-minute format to accommodate the demanding schedules faced by many working in New England newsrooms. The program is free and open to the public. Registration for each lesson is required.

30 Minute Skills is supported in part by the Estate of Gloria Negri, the late trailblazing journalist who spent more than 50 years at The Boston Globe.

According to the latest study from the Reynolds Journalism Institute, 56% of active journalists are mostly pessimistic about journalism, with this number rising to 83% among former journalists and journalism managers. Burnout is an “occupational phenomenon,” but most of us don’t have the power to change the organizations we work for.

In this self-reflective session — led by Sam Ragland, API’s vice president of journalism programs — journalists will contribute anonymously to a series of prompts to learn actionable insights for reassessing and repairing their relationships with work. Created specifically for those working within a news organization, this session will help journalists:

• Assess where they sit on the stress spectrum
• Understand what is inside and outside of their control
• Self-prescribe a set of actions to combat their unique blend of burnout

To support journalists and their well-being during Mental Health Awareness Month, API is offering this free, interactive webinar.

About Sam Ragland: Sam is an award-winning local newsroom leader who thought she was immune to burnout. She wasn’t. And since the start of the pandemic, she’s been studying the hazards of being a journalist, collaborating with trauma therapists and getting certified in digital wellness to coach and support journalists in their stress response. Using her tenure as an editor at the Palm Beach Post and USA TODAY, Sam has developed trauma-informed leadership practices and trained more than a thousand journalists across the world.

How do American audiences view election news? And what simple steps can you take to build your community’s confidence in your election coverage?

In this free webinar, API will discuss both research and strategies for engaged election coverage this year, including:

• New findings on how Americans view national and location election news, pulled from API’s work with the Media Insight Project.
• Simple structures and tools for authentic community engagement, pulled from our API Inclusion Index program, that can inform and build trust in your election reporting.

News leaders who attend can plan to leave with an understanding of common attitudes Americans have toward election news in 2024 plus frameworks for community engagement to implement.  We will also highlight additional resources to turn for support.

This session will include 30 minutes for Q&A to discuss election engagement strategies with peers and experts.

This webinar is part of a seven-part API and AP webinar series to support news organizations’ evolving needs around local elections and democracy.  

Session Moderator

Kevin Loker is a director of strategic partnerships and research at API. He has spent more than a decade at nonprofits supporting journalism and its sustainability, and in roles involving research, peer learning and partnerships. That includes contributing to research studies with the Media Insight Project, API’s collaboration with the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research at the University of Chicago. Currently he is also a Visiting Fellow at the SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University.

As threats against journalists become increasingly common, reporters must take measures to protect themselves while newsgathering. This lesson will focus on online risks and how they can be mitigated.

By attending this class, you’ll learn:

• The necessities for protecting your electronic devices, such as encryption, 2FA, passwords and phishing awareness.

• How to reduce the risk of doxxing.

• How to develop best practices for social media when used for both personal and professional purposes.

Instructor: Stephanie Sugars, U.S. Press Freedom Tracker

The New England First Amendment Coalition launched in 2020 a monthly educational series featuring short, practical lessons on journalism and the First Amendment.

The goal of the program — called “30 Minute Skills” — is to provide reporters and other citizens knowledge they can use immediately in newsgathering, data collection, storytelling and other areas of journalism and First Amendment law.

The lessons are provided in a 30-minute format to accommodate the demanding schedules faced by many working in New England newsrooms. The program is free and open to the public. Registration for each lesson is required.

30 Minute Skills is supported in part by the Estate of Gloria Negri, the late trailblazing journalist who spent more than 50 years at The Boston Globe.

In under an hour, you’ll receive:
* The seven “must-haves” in every media kit
* Examples of media kits from successful publishers
* A media template in (Google Slides) that you can use today

Hosted by Kenny Katzgrau, Publisher of redbankgreen.com and creator of Broadstreet and co-Hosted by the amazing Annette Batson, Advertising Director, Montclair Local.

A free Local Media Association webinar.